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Friday, 16 June 2017

Twitter rolling out a new look and features for its apps

Twitter has announced that a pretty big overhaul is arriving for its apps which should unify the experience while also bringing in new features to keep people in the loop.

The new look will be rolling out to Twitter on the web, Twitter apps for Android and iOS, TweetDeck, and Twitter Lite over the coming days and weeks. Some features are tied to a specific platform, while the majority of the new features and aesthetics will be available on all the available apps.

One of the biggest changes is a new side panel for iOS users (Android users got it last year). This includes the user’s profile, privacy, and settings. Twitter says this will reduce clutter and reduce the number of tabs that are present on the bottom of the app.

Here are the other new changes, as confirmed by Twitter:

Links to articles and websites now open in Safari’s viewer in the Twitter app so you can easily access accounts on websites you’re already signed into.*

We’ve refined our typography to make it more consistent, and added bolder headlines to make it easier to focus on what’s happening. Also, rounded profile photos make it clearer to see what’s being said and who’s saying it.

More intuitive icons make it easier to engage with Tweets – especially if you’re coming to Twitter for the first time. For example, people thought the reply icon, an arrow, meant delete or go back to a previous page. We switched to a speech bubble, a symbol most know and love. We also made the icons lighter for more seamless interaction.

Tweets now update instantly with reply, Retweet, and like counts so you can see conversations as they’re happening – live.**

The new Safari feature is only available for Twitter on iOS, and the instantly updating tweets will not be available on Twitter Lite at all.

How often do you check Twitter, and do you use the official app or a third-party alternative?